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I have a good excuse. My gran, who is 93 (and pushing 94) had a fall late Thursday evening, and was finally settled into a recovery hospital on Saturday. Before you think she took a tumble in her flat, she was in fact out rampaging around the countryside and got her foot caught and fell. It was an accident that anyone could have had, and she has a hairline fracture on her pelvis. I was, obviously visiting her yesterday. I’ll be off to see her again this evening too.

If I live to her age, I can only hope that I retain my wits and mind powers like she has. She has a medical background, and keeps on asking the staff questions about her treatment. I also note that she is irritated by the standard “speak to the old people” tone of voice adopted by some of the staff at the hospital :evil: . I wanted to tell them that she has all her faculties, and is only slightly deaf in on ear.

Anyway, the prognosis is good, and hopefully she will be out by the end of the week.

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Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:54 pm
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I want to die suddenly and unexpectedly long before I get to 94. Being old and frail doesn't appeal to me!

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Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:59 pm
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Being old and frail is not nice - I'm off to a funeral this week of a friend who withered away to a husk - but I want to be rampaging like Paul's gran.

I think if you can keep your wits, and remain fairly fit, there's no reason why you shouldn't enjoy life to the full for as long as possible.

I want to go in my sleep, after a nice long walk probably.

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Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:31 pm
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Linux_User wrote:
I want to die suddenly and unexpectedly long before I get to 94. Being old and frail doesn't appeal to me!


Nor me; in fact I




*Thump*

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Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:36 pm
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Seems to be the season for it - my Dad's back home after spending 3 weeks sorting out his mother after she fell and hurt her back. She's 96.
All seems to be well now though, and she has a carer who's making home visits everyday now.

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Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:41 pm
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Age is just a number.

Yes, your body can let you down, but I've seen people "old" in their fifties and one morning, some years ago at about one o'clock (01.00) I assisted a sprightly 101 year old lady off the floor, and left her in her chair, still watching TV with a glass of whisky. At no time did I think that she had to go to hospital purely because of her age.

Leni Reifenstahl who is unfortunately widely known for making Nazi propaganda films even though she wasn't a Nazi and didn't relish the work, took up SCUBA diving in her seventies (or maybe eighties) when her doctor advised her to give up skiing. I read an article on her when she was still diving at 93! and not only that, she was still making movies- underwater!!

So don't wish yourself dead before you get old. Wait and see what happens.

And best wishes to you and your gran, Paul.

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Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:41 pm
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trigen_killer wrote:
don't wish yourself dead before you get old.

I heard The Who were doing a new musical. Many bad puns were made, but you'll have to search them out yourself because it's all too painful for my old fingers.

I have quite good memories from when I was older. Mostly, I'm chasing young nurses and being generally dirty. It's not so bad.

Best wishes to your Gran, Paul. I know the patronising language quite well, having been hospitalised next to a stroke patient and witnessed it's painful inevitability. The guy was sharp as a rasor, but his speech was slurred so everyone treated him like a baby. It's no surprise that he was grumpy.

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Last edited by JJW009 on Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:15 pm
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It sound like she is anything but "old and frail" !!

I wish her a speedy recovery Paul and look forward to seeing your posts in the not too distant future telling us that she is, once again, up and about in the countryside.


Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:28 pm
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PaulKey wrote:
It sound like she is anything but "old and frail" !!

I wish her a speedy recovery Paul and look forward to seeing your posts in the not too distant future telling us that she is, once again, up and about in the countryside.


Thanks for all the good wishes :-) I think she will be taking it easy for a bit, but she’ll be up and around again. I think she’s keen on a trip to Tate Modern.

I went to see her this evening, and she’s able to stand without looking pained today, and she is expecting to be out soon. I think she may be in for a little longer than she is expecting. She’s keeping herself occupied with The Guardian (which she reads, digests and then quizzes me on - it’s like going to an exam with her at times).

Yes, she is physically frail, but her mind and inquisitiveness is not diminished. Her husband was a doctor, and she has worked in various scientific and electronic companies and is always keen to know more. She was asking me if silicon had reached its threshold of usefulness yesterday. So there I am in the geriatric ward, talking about integrated circuits, multi core processors.... Not the usual conversation you would expect to hear there.

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Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:14 pm
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It's probable that you already know this, but just in case you don't.....

Your visiting her, enduring the quizzes and chatting generally to her will almost certainly be doing her as much good as the medical care she is receiving.

Good man.... keep it up !


Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:24 pm
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PaulKey wrote:
It's probable that you already know this, but just in case you don't.....

Your visiting her, enduring the quizzes and chatting generally to her will almost certainly be doing her as much good as the medical care she is receiving.

Good man.... keep it up !


:-)

She can generally be found in the local library looking things up, trying to grab the Guardian with the solution to the weekend’s puzzles before they archive it. She was out with her local nature group when the accident happened. She is very mentally and physically active, and she’s not doing badly for it.

Anyway - off to see her again this evening. She will be in for this week - I expect she will be let out early next week. She has a lot of friends who are turning up to see her too, so her mind is being kept running while she’s in hospital.

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Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:45 pm
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Update: she is now equipped with a zimmer frame and has the run of the ward and the day room, which is really doing her some good as she has her independence back. She doesn’t look in any discomfort any more, and is able to stand with little effort. The hospital are really pleased with her progress, and attitude.

The bad news is that she is going to be kept in until they have assessed her flat. If they feel she can move around with the zimmer frame, she will be back next week. If not, they will keep her in until they are happy she can move around with just a stick (yes - she has never had a stick).

In all, it’s looking very good for her, though after she gets home she will need to be persuaded that solo trips to London with her very heavy bag may not be the best idea. A bridge to cross later, methinks.

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Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:41 pm
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An update.

My grandma is going home on Friday. She still has a nasty wound on her leg, so she’ll be taken to the main hospital to have it done properly. She had a specialist tissue nurse looking at it today. Despite that, she’s been given the OK to go home. The occupational therapist feels it’s best for her to be allowed to continue outside of the hospital. There will be calls by a district nurse to change bandages and check up on her progress. I know grandma has been getting frustrated by the lack of real world events, and will be keen to be able to have her radio, TV, books, newspapers and the freedom to live to her time table. She has been obviously frustrated over the last few visits because she can’t offer us tea and cake. We’ve been taking her cartons of fruit juice, and she’s been insisting that we drink those with her.

I’ve said that I can be around when they take her home, but we’ve been told that this is not a good idea. The plan is for the hospital to take her home, get her settled and leave her to her own devices. I’ll be checking in with her some time next week. I tend to agree with the occupational therapist - but I’m close enough to be there in about 20 minutes if needed.

The staff at the hospital seem to have taken to her, and they have enjoyed looking after her. I guess they get some right cantankerous sorts to deal with. They all definitely feel that she has all her marbles and is in jolly good form for someone her age. Anyway, I’m happy to say that she has been well looked after, and hasn’t been in any distress because of her experiences there.

Me? Now that the hospital visits are over, I can get back to a normal routine too. These have been long, bothersome days (I am not at all comfortable in hospitals), and I need to catch up on some decent sleep.

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Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:11 pm
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It's good to hear the progress. I really hope that wound heals up cleanly. Unfortunately, such things can very quickly become a serious problem. She's very lucky you live so near by - something that would have been taken for granted when she was young, but sadly our families in these modern times tend to spread so thin we can't even find the time to even say "hello" sometimes.

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Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:59 pm
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JJW009 wrote:
It's good to hear the progress. I really hope that wound heals up cleanly. Unfortunately, such things can very quickly become a serious problem. She's very lucky you live so near by - something that would have been taken for granted when she was young, but sadly our families in these modern times tend to spread so thin we can't even find the time to even say "hello" sometimes.


So far, the hospital are concerned that the wound has not healed. But apparently, the swelling was quite big, so the skin stretched and that can have an effect. It’s not infected, and she will be having more treatment as an outpatient at the local hospital next week. It seems that the wound was not handled correctly in A&E. :roll:

I have a very small family. I have exactly seven living relatives I count as proper family (there are a few more in the Midlands who are descended from cousins of grand parents, but there is no contact). Even on full compliment when I had both sets of grandparents alive, I had none (my mum’s dad was estranged for a while, and I only met him after my dad’s father died). My mother has no siblings, my dad has a sister, but there have been no children. So there are no cousins, and as my mum pointed out, she has no brother or sister to shear the load if/when her mother needs it. So we are small in number.

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Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:32 am
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